New Alzheimers Diagnosis for 85 YO Dad

@alankubicz

Hi and welcome. I am sorry for your reason to be here but pleased you found this place.

Most of the staging checklists will include common symptoms and behaviors seen in dementia. I used DBAT initially. I'll include a link below.

That said, it's important to share any quirks you see in your bulleted list and let the doctor decide if they're a concern or not. My dad ended up in the ED for a change in mental status that turned out to be psychosis related to one of his mixed dementias. Mom was an unreliable reporter, so when I talked with the 3rd year resident we were assigned out in the hall, I shared some of dad's quirks mom hadn't thought important or considered embarrassing to share which helped him narrow things down more quickly.

I find it helpful to communicate via my parents' echart patient portal. If this isn't available to you, a written note handed in at check-in to be read before coming into the exam room works too. This can help you avoid throwing your PWD under the bus in front of them. I sit behind my parent so I can nonverbally confirm or deny what they're saying.

HB

Tools for assessing dementia progression — Tam Cummings, PhD

I started keeping a list of odd behaviors that I could give to the doctor. Sometimes a clock would chime and my mother would say "Hurry! Isn't someone going to answer that!!?" (thinking it was the phone), or she would be confused about where she was. Things like that, and these incidents were getting to be too many to keep in my head. And like Harshedbuzz, my sister and I stand behind our mother on doctors' visits so we can nod or shake our heads without her seeing. I'm sorry about your Dad. This is really hard.